Follow Up

Question
I recently asked a question regarding my male and female syrian. I have had him for seven months and I just got her. I wanted to wait to breed them until she was used to her surroundings. Their glass cages are next to each other. We have kept them seperate so far, but I woke up this morning and I couldn't find the male. I went into panic mode and searched the house. Well to my surprise he decided to take it upon himself to room with the female. Only God himself knows how he got in there. Now my question is, what are the chances that they had a sucessful mating experience. She was running on the wheel and he was sleeping in her hut. I know it is hard to determine but this was their first interaction. I am not ready to be a stepmom yet...PLease help any way you can. Thanks.

Answer
Hi Stepfanie

I laughed when I read your email - your male sounds like a real character!  Just as well you were planning on mating them anyway.

I assume you've separated them now and sorted out how he managed to break out and break in during the night.

There is an easy way to see if the female is pregnant - whilst not necessarily 100% reliable, this is a pretty good way.  Females come into season every 4 days.  Over the next 4 days/evenings put the female on the top of the male's cage. Let them sniff each other through the bars/mesh.  Once she's sniffed him, scratch her back especially towards her tail.  If she is in season she will stiffen and arch her back.  It is worth trying this several times during the evening as they don't necessarily come into season at exactly the same time every 4 days.  If during these 4 days she does arch her back and stiffen (for some females there is no mistaking this), then you know she isn't pregnant.  With this in mind, if you find she isn't pregnant, you can now work out when to mate her. Should this be the case I would recommend you don't leave them unsupervised.  Your male is very lucky he wasn't attacked - females can become very aggressive after mating.  When I've mated hamsters in the past I've gone through this procedure to make certain I've got the right day, then I put them together in neutral territory (usually in a washing up bowl!), then I always watch them in case there's a problem and as soon as they have mated I separate them.

If she doesn't arch her back then there's a strong possibility she has conceived, in which case expect a litter in 16-18 days time.  Occasionally the female reabsorbs the litter for various reasons.  If this is the case you will need to go through the process again, but if you think she is pregnant, it is safest to wait until after the 18 days just to be sure as some females don't get particularly large until the last couple of days.  If she is pregnant, don't overfeed her - just the usual amount of food (you can increase her intake once the litter is born by giving human baby food (powdered porridge/oat variety for babies is the favorite) which you mix with water and the babies can have this too once they are a couple of weeks old).  However, I suspect she is quite young and possibly quite small herself, so you don't want her babies getting too large inside her as this can cause complications during labor.  Litters born to young hamsters are usually fairly small (around 6), whereas adult hamsters can produce litters of 12-14!

I hope this helps you - please let me know how you get on.

Regards